The legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright never wore his heart on his sleeve. For better or for worse, he dressed up his blueprints in his feelings, and nowhere is that reflex so painfully clear than in his handful of mysterious, pre-Colombian-inspired houses built in California in the early 1920s. You could call them “the…

I‘ll never forget the first time I watched Dr. Zhivago and the chills it sent down my spine as Yuri and Lara walked into their abandoned ice palace; the winter dacha of the Varykino estate. I haven’t been to Russia yet, but I dream of it; of boarding the Trans-Siberian Railway, travelling deep into mother Russia, blanketed…

Looking for the remnants of old Berlin is difficult. Not so much the churches, museums and monuments, but the bars, restaurants, theatres and cafes that once graced the city. For a brief while between the two World Wars, Berlin was one of the most decadent, thrilling and glitziest of European cities. “The city had a…

For the past 25 years, Marjorie Elliot has been hosting free jazz concerts out of her New York apartment every Sunday for strangers. While serving up some of the best jazz in the city from her parlour, Harlem’s secret jazz queen of Sugar Hill is single-handedly upholding the musical legacy of a neighbourhood that nurtured legends…

We’ve made a few trips to explore the abandoned resorts of the Borscht Belt of New York. Once places like Grossinger’s, the Concord, Kutscher’s and the Pines, were the epitome of a swanky summer holiday for New Yorkers. All through the Catskills were dozens of all-inclusive resorts, glitzy enough to entice the mostly Jewish, upper-middle…

Ah, the joys of an island vacation. Feet in the sand, a piña colada in hand and…a herd of buffalo by the palms? On a small island off the coast of L.A., a curious population of non-native buffalo has been thriving since 1924, when they were brought over for a silent Hollywood film– and left there to save…

“The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances,” wrote Agatha Christie in her iconic 1934 novel, Murder on the Orient Express, which was adapted into a Hollywood motion picture this year featuring an all-star cast including Johnny Depp, Kenneth Brannagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe and Penelope Cruz. It still feels…

If you ever find yourself in Oxford, England in search of a bed for the night, you might consider booking a room at the student dorm accommodation of Christ Church College, University of Oxford for a real-life Harry Potter experience. The university not only provides accommodation over the summer months, but your stay comes with an all…

Remember when French authorities built a miniature version of Paris to save the city from Nazi bomb-fire? Well, it wouldn’t be the last time the City of Lights required a stunt double. The second time, however, was under much cheerier circumstances: the filming of the Leos Carax’s cult ’90s French film, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. Initially, Carax…

Tucked along New York’s Hudson River is the town of Sleepy Hollow, where old carriage roads can still be walked, and the woodlands feel just a bit darker than they should. It’s also home to the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, a gothic style church built in 1921 by the Rockefellers. Oh, and it happens to…